The invention relates generally to produce storage and ripening and relates particularly to ways of storing and ripening produce upon demand.
In a simpler world, produce such as fruit and vegetables, especially perishable fruit and vegetables, were not transported very far to the place of consumption. Because the transportation distance was not great, the time in transit was not great. Would-be consumers who lived a distance from the farm or orchard would not be able to obtain a wide selection of fruits and vegetables. The only fruit and vegetables available at all would be those that are “in season” at farms or orchards that were not too far away.
It has become commonplace, in recent years, to transport nearly all kinds of fruit and vegetables great distances to consumers. From the consumer's point of view, this has led to an extremely wide selection of fruits and vegetables, and the breadth of the selection is maintained throughout the year.
Part of what makes this selection possible is that many fruits and vegetables are picked when they are not yet ripe. This permits shipping the produce with the intention that the produce will ripen at a later time. In many cases it is assumed that some of the ripening can happen in transit, and that some of the ripening may happen while the produce is in the store awaiting purchase. Finally some of the ripening may happen in the home of the consumer.
It is well known to supply ethylene gas to produce during transit to help the produce ripen. It is also known to purge the ambient air about the produce to flush away carbon dioxide which is emitted by produce during ripening and which interferes with ripening.
US Patents directed generally to controlled ripening of produce include “Method for storing fruit,” U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,967 issued in October 1967; “Fruit ripening ethylene gas storage and dispensing system and container therefore,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,178, issued in May 1994; “Method for controlling the ripening of fresh produce,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,443, issued in July 1991; “Apparatus for controlling the ripening of fresh produce,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,524, issued in October 1988; and “Method for accelerating fruit respiration,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,389, issued in August 1988. The latter shows, et alia, a ripening enclosure intended for use in the home of the consumer.
Ripening in the home is not easy to get right. Many consumers are not aware of how to ripen produce correctly. Those consumers who are aware how to ripen produce correctly may nonetheless not have needed equipment and facilities to ripen the produce correctly. Finally, some prior-art apparatus that is meant to assist a consumer in ripening produce does not work well for its purpose.
One way to ripen produce is simply to store it until it has ripened. This has drawbacks. For example the produce may ripen on a day that is earlier or later than the day the consumer wished to make use of the produce. The consumer who wishes to guard against this problem will be forced to purchase produce on several different days, gambling that one or another days' worth of produce may happen to ripen on the desired day. This requires storage space for the batches of produce, and risks wasting some of the produce.